Ever Wonder

Austin Mayor Steve Adler wrote this reply to an angry visitor. Posted on June 1, 2017 at 11:23am EDT The mayor of Austin, Texas had some strong words for a citizen upset by plans to host women-only Wonder Woman screenings in select theaters — a decision that drew negative reactions online. Mayor Steve Adler’s official website posted an email he received from a man looking to “boycott Austin” and “cause damage to the city’s image” out of anger for those screenings, which will take place at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse cinema. (Similar screenings will happen at the Drafthouse’s New York location.) “The theater that pandered to the sexism typical of women will, I hope, regret it’s decision,” the man wrote in a rant. He also threw out false claims, like “women pretend they do not know that only men serve in combat because they are content to have an easier ride” and “women gladly accept gold medals at the Olympics for coming in 10th and competing only against the second class of athletes. Name something invented by a woman!” The letter-writer continued, “If Austin does not host a men-only counter event, I will never visit Austin and will welcome it’s [sic] [deterioration].” Adler responded a few days later with his own note. “I am writing to alert you that your email account has been hacked by an unfortunate and unusually hostile individual,” the mayor wrote. “Please remedy your account’s security right away, lest this person’s uninformed and sexist rantings give you a bad name. After all, we men have to look out for each other!” “Can you imagine if someone thought that you didn’t know women could serve in our combat units now without exclusion?” Adler continued. “What if someone thought you didn’t know that women invented medical syringes, life rafts, fire escapes, central and solar heating, a war-time communications system for radio-controlling torpedoes that laid the technological foundations for everything from Wi-Fi to GPS, and beer? And I hesitate to imagine how embarrassed you’d be if someone thought you were upset that a private business was realizing a business opportunity by reserving one screening this weekend for women to see a superhero movie.” As an added stinger, Adler ended by calling the man’s views “an embarrassment to modernity, decency, and common sense.” Read his full response on his website. Alamo Drafthouse announced last week it will host women-only screenings of Wonder Woman, including for “people who identify as women.” The theater chain responded on social media to one male user, “Very sorry if you feel excluded. We thought it might be kinda fun — for one screening — to celebrate a character who’s meant a great deal to women for close to eight decades.” To another, Drafthouse reps wrote, “We’ve never done showings where you had to be a man to get in, but we *did* show the Entourage movie a few years ago.” Actor Don Cheadle, who plays War Machine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was one among those championing the move. “There’s no point to men making a point about celebrating themselves. That’s called ‘the planet.’ Claro?” he tweeted to a suggestion of a male-only Superman screening.